Use Tax Autopop when entering a listing to help you enter the correct information from the get go.

Use Listing Compliance Self Check which allows you to review new and existing listings for common compliance issues so you can head them off at the pass!

Instructions for both are at the bottom of the Compliance Page of RMLS LINK

Contingent listings are still fair game to show and submit back up offers. This is why updating status changes are required to be done within two (2) business days, according to the RMLS Rules and Regulations

S (Single Family Detached)

Free standing residential dwelling that does not have common walls.

C (Condo, Coop Condominium or Cooperative)

a. Condominium A group of housing units that share common walls, ceilings and floors. Typically, each individual owns the unit space and areas of common use. The land is typically owned in common by all unit owners.

b. Coop (aka Cooperative) A group of housing units that share common walls, ceilings and floors. Ownership is not conveyed. In a co-op purchase the buyer becomes a shareholder in a corporation that owns the building. The buyer carries a leasehold interest in the subject unit.

T (Townhouse/Villa/Row)

A row of homes sharing common walls which can be attached to other units with one or both sides sharing common walls, depending on whether the unit is in a center or end position. Townhouses can be grouped together to create duplexes or triplexes, or they can be a part of a large townhouse complex. Ownership includes any areas of common use.

M (Mobile Home)

A dwelling manufactured in a factory, designed to be transported and is semi permanently attached to the land. Mobile homes must be attached to real property and taxed as real property to be listed in the MLS system.

A buyer looking for condominiums rarely wants to look at mobile homes, even if the mobile home park is set up legally as a condominium or coop.

"Most of us would rather risk catastrophe than read the directions." Mignon McLaughlin

Privacy and information security rules and regulations are changing monthly. Do you know what your legal obligations are to your customers, prospects, associates, vendors, and employees? Have you fully covered your assets?

Today’s maze of enacted laws, pending legislation and best management practices related to privacy and information security issues is enough to make even the most savvy business person’s head spin. Did you know that there are different laws being proposed nationwide and in Congress on these subjects almost daily? Are you tracking them to make sure you know if and how they will affect your business and adapting your business model accordingly? Do you know what you need to do to comply with the ones that have been recently enacted to reduce your legal exposure and risk?

To help take the complexities out of fair information practices and data compliance issues and let your business focus on your business, not pages upon pages of compliance and regulatory drafts that may or may not apply to your business process, here is a handy dandy risk management checklist.

On the physical risk management side, do you have?

· Computers backed-up regularly

· Disaster Recovery program

· Archival record storage

On the legal side, do you have?

· Disclaimers

· Website Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

· All printed and digital materials like articles, newsletters

· Opt-in and opt-outs for electronic newsletters and email notification services

· Data breach incident recovery plan

· Privacy insurance

As always, your Privacy Gurus® are here to help. If you haven’t checked all of the items above and have any questions, please feel free to contact Cristina@PrivacyGurus.com for more information.

Darity Wesley is CEO and Legal Counsel for Privacy Solutions, Inc. a San Diego based consulting firm. Her team of Privacy Gurus® work with you to create policies and procedures to establish the expectation of privacy for your members, clients, customers, prospects, affiliates, associates, employees and vendors. You can reach her at 619-670-9462 or Darity@privacygurus.com, Visit our website at www.privacygurus.com ©2011 Privacy Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. www.PrivacyGurus.com

Recently, I signed a great listing agreement. I was so excited that I rushed back to my office to enter the listing into the system. In my excitement I skipped past a few of the required fields. A few days later I received a Compliance Courtesy Notice and wasn’t sure what it meant. I assumed because the system accepted my entry everything was fine. Then, about a week after the courtesy notice, which I previously disregarded, I received a Fine Notice.

I want to make sure that this never happens to me again. Why was I fined and how does the process work?

Yours Truly,

Ibin Phyned

Dear Mr. Phyned,

It is vital that the listing data, provided by you and maintained by RMLS is accurate, from both a legal and reliability prospective. Without accurate data, subscribers cannot effectively search for listings. Furthermore, accuracy improves the odds of another subscriber finding and selling your listing.

Listing errors are found three ways: They are reported by RMLS staff, anonymously by other subscribers, and with the MLS Data Checker, an automated program that finds obvious errors such as missing pictures.

The reported errors are individually and thoroughly reviewed by RMLS personnel. If the error is found to be a violation of the RMLS Rules and Regulations, a notice is emailed to the listing agent and copied to the office’s broker and any registered administrators. The notice details why there is a violation (See Sample Notice Below) and provides a grace period ending date by which the correction must be made. The correction must be made BEFORE the grace period ending date.

It is the sole responsibility of those notified to correct the listing within the grace period. If you don’t understand the violation, reply to the warning by asking for guidance or call the RMLS Help Desk. Once understood, correct the issue. There is NO NEED to reply to the notice stating that you have made the necessary corrections. The system automatically picks up the correction.

If the listing violation is not corrected within the grace period, the appropriate fine will be charged to the listing Broker’s account. Fine notices will continue to be e-mailed to you and copied to your broker and any office administrators as long as the listing remains out of compliance. The amount of the fine compounds for each notice that is sent. Fines are due upon receipt.

The Compliance Guidelines located under the compliance link on the RMLS website, www.rmlsfl.com, outlines most violations, the amount of the fine and the petition process.

Thank you,

Mr. MLS Manner

To Report MLS Listing Violations:

While in the details screen in MLXChange, click on report data error on the left side. It will automatically insert the Compliance email address and the listing information; just type in your comments regarding the violation. For questions regarding listing compliance, please email compliance@rmlsfl.com.

The enactment of the federal Fair Housing Act on came only after a long and difficult journey. From 1966 to 1967, Congress regularly considered the fair housing bill, but failed to garner a strong enough majority for its passage. However, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson utilized this national tragedy to urge for the bill’s speedy Congressional approval. Since the 1966 open housing marches in Chicago, Dr. King’s name had been closely associated with the fair housing legislation. President Johnson viewed the Act as a fitting memorial to the man’s life work, and wished to have the Act passed prior to Dr. King’s funeral in Atlanta.

Another significant issue during this time period was the growing casualty list from Vietnam. The deaths in Vietnam fell heaviest upon young, poor African-American and Hispanic infantrymen. However, on the home front, these men’s families could not purchase or rent homes in certain residential developments on account of their race or national origin. Specialized organizations like the NAACP, the GI Forum and the National Committee Against Discrimination In Housing lobbied hard for the Senate to pass the Fair Housing Act and remedy this inequity. Senators Edward Brooke and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts argued deeply for the passage of this legislation. In particular, Senator Brooke, the first African-American ever to be elected to the Senate by popular vote, spoke personally of his return from World War II and his inability to provide a home of his choice for his new family because of his race.

With the cities rioting after Dr. King’s assassination, and destruction mounting in every part of the United States, the words of President Johnson and Congressional leaders rang the Bell of Reason for the House of Representatives, who subsequently passed the Fair Housing Act. Without debate, the Senate followed the House in its passage of the Act, which President Johnson then signed into law in April 1968.

In subsequent years, the tradition of celebrating Fair Housing Month grew larger and larger. Governors began to issue proclamations that designated April as “Fair Housing Month,” and schools across the country sponsored poster and essay contests that focused upon fair housing issues. Regional winners from these contests often enjoyed trips to Washington, DC for events with HUD and their Congressional representatives.

With the cooperation of the National Association of Home Builders, National Association of Realtors, and the American Advertising Council these groups adopted fair housing as their theme and provided “free” billboard space throughout the nation. These large 20-foot by 14-foot billboards placed the fair housing message in neighborhoods, industrial centers, agrarian regions and urban cores. Every region also had its own celebrations, meetings, dinners, contests and radio-television shows that featured HUD, state and private fair housing experts and officials. These celebrations continue the spirit behind the original passage of the Act, and are remembered fondly by those who were there from the beginning.

What is so important about making sure sales are entered accurately in the MLS within 2 days of closing? Time saved when putting deals together, quicker lender approval and better information to market South Florida around the world.

RMLS has three compliance rules that have an impact on every residential transaction. Violations for status change, incorrect sales information and failure to report sales, affect both the individual listing it pertains to and the larger marketplace as well.

Status Change: Entering the proper status on listings identifies how many listings are on the market at any one time. Knowing the supply available in a particular neighborhood, condominium complex or type of listing is important when negotiating a contract. It is part of the matrix that enables buyers or sellers to have a proper perspective when evaluating offers and counter offers.

In addition, entering the correct status helps maintain the good will of real estate professionals working together by saving them time.

Incorrect Sales Data: The sales date and final selling price should match the date reflected in public records, which is the date the HUD-1 was signed and the deal closed by the last party.

Accurate financial data is important to help evaluate the market and the typical buyer in the sub market. Any seller’s concessions (cash paid by the seller, such as Points, repairs made as condition of the sale, or proportional separation of personal property included in the transaction) should be disclosed in the remarks section. While not required by RMLS, it is recommended that the broker remarks or addendum be edited at the time the sale is posted to disclose such concessions. This will minimize contact from appraisers and agents trying to make sense of the numbers.

Failure to Report Sales: All sales of listings are required to be entered within 2 business days of the sale. This includes properties that are Temporary Off Market (TMP), Contingent (CTG) or Pending (PND) prior to the expiration date entered. The MLS data is updated more frequently than sales are reported in Public Records, so it is often a better comparable for the marketplace.

Why do these Rules Matter?

Appraisals: Currently, every residential appraisal prepared for federal financing is required to include a market analysis. This form, the 1004mc, identifies the quantified changes for the market area (neighborhood) of the subject property. A time period of 3, 6, and 12 months is analyzed, including the number of active listings, days on market, sales prices and list price to sales price ratios. Customarily appraisers pull this information from the MLS database. When the data is inaccurate then the report is flawed, causing the appraised value to be skewed, rejection by a lender and denial of the buyers loan.

Automated Value Model (AVMs): Similarly, the Automated Value Model is a service that uses mathematical modeling to value properties. The majority of AVMs compare the values of similar properties at the same point in time. Many lenders use this type of model to value residential properties in lieu of an appraisal. While these models are quick and cheap, they do not factor in the condition of the property to determine its value. The accuracy of the AVM is dependent on the accuracy of the data it pulls from.

Market Statistics: Finally, the Housing Market Statistics available in local and national publications identifies the health of the real estate market. These statistics compare housing units sold this month to a year ago, and determine a variety of one line statistics, i.e. which value range of homes are selling the fastest and which are stagnant, how big an influence foreclosures are having on a market area, and overall volume of real estate sold. All these reports depend on data collected by the MLS. So if you want to demonstrate that real estate is a good risk in South Florida and is not still declining, then you need to enter your sales into the MLS accurately. Buyers, Sellers, Investors and Lenders make decisions based on the numbers. So when the numbers are right we all win!

Autopop inputs many of the required fields at the time a listing is entered with the click of one button just by entering either the Address or Tax ID. This not only reduces the time to enter the listing, but helps reduce potential compliance issues in fields such as Tax ID #, Address, legal description, current taxes, and owner’s name.

How To Use Autopop:

From the MLXChange home page, click on “Modify or Add New Listing” located in the “Find a Listing” box on the left hand side.

Once you click “Add New Listing” and select the “Property Type”; a pop up box will appear asking if you want to Autopop. Here you can access the tax records either by Address or Tax ID. Which ever one you pick, make sure that the bubble next to that search is filled in. Hint: The Compliance Department recommends accessing the tax records via “Tax ID”. If you access the tax records by address, there may be several choices that match the property. Be careful to check the box that matches your property owner. In some counties there are often similar addresses that only differ by the Street Suffix (i.e. 123 Hampton Circle, 123 Hampton Place and 123 Hampton Drive). After selecting the address, click on “Populate” at the bottom left corner.

If you originally opted not to use the Autopop by clicking the “Cancel” button, you can still access it by clicking on “Tax Autopop” at the bottom right of the screen.

You will be able to review and change any listing entry fields that were Autopoped prior to saving. This way if your information about the property is more accurate than the tax records, you can change it. The Compliance Department recommends that you clarify these differences in Public or Broker remarks; whichever is appropriate.

Listing Compliancy Check

The Listing Compliancy Check is a great NEW feature that empowers you to review the listing for possible violations that would generate compliance notices. You can use this feature on existing listings or at the time of listing entry, once the listing has been submitted.

How To Use Listing Compliancy Check:

From the MLXChange home page click on “Modify or Add New Listing”.

Enter the MLS # in the box at the top right hand of the page and click the green arrow to the right of that box.

This is the Listing Summary Page which provides a quick summary of the listing. Now look to the bottom left and find the “LINKS” drop down box. Click the down arrow and select “Listing Compliancy Check”, which is the last choice, and click the green arrow to the right of that box.

The next pop up box provides a view of the data checker screen which is the same screen the Compliance Department utilizes to check listings. You will notice that all information, including listing and expiration dates, is entered. This information can only be viewed by you the listing agent, the listing broker and anyone that has admin privileges in your office.

The items highlighted in RED on this page alert you to potential violations that should be reviewed and changed to prevent the listing from being out of compliance. If no items are in RED, the listing does not have any of the more common violations, but this does not guarantee the listing is compliant with ALL RMLS Rules.

Make note of the MLS Value and the Realist Property Records (P/R) Value comparison in the center of this view. MLS Value on the left is what was entered by you or your office for this listing. P/R Value on the right is what is showing in the Realist Tax records. If the Autopop feature described above is used, these fields will match providing the Tax ID used to search for the information was accurate. When these two entries do NOT match, the field entry will show up in RED. If you do not see a P/R Value and the listing is not new construction, please double check your entry to ensure the right Tax ID was entered.

If you find items in RED, you can minimize this screen and then click the “EDIT” button next to the listing summary at the top right of the page. Make the changes necessary and save the listing. Close the data checker screen and run the compliancy check again to make sure your changes meet the Rule requirements.

Both of these features help with the details and accuracy of your listings. Give them a try and if you need assistance with these features, contact the RMLS Help Desk at 561-514-6438 or email them at Help.Desk@rmlsfl.com. Remember, accurate data helps everyone work more efficiently to market and sell real estate.

Here the RMLS rules are directly influenced by the limits of your licensure by the State of Florida and DBPR. Since the RMLS database was developed to support the promotion and sale of real property ONLY, mobile homes and docks with real property can be listed. RMLS does not allow personal property listed in our database, which is why you do not find listings for cars, jewels or furniture.

by Darity Wesley

"The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their life." – Brain Tracy

Every day in the privacy world there is breaking news. From new legislation being introduced to new scams being exposed to data security breaches being announced, we are immersed in a world I envisioned when I started Privacy Solutions 10 years ago – a world in which privacy matters to everyone.

Over the years I have made numerous trips to Capitol Hill to educate our elected representatives on all things privacy like social security number protection and safeguarding the lifeblood of business – the free flow of data. Now there is a new Senate Judiciary Subcommittee for Privacy, Technology and the Law, which will oversee laws and policies governing the collection, protection, use and dissemination of commercial information by the private sector. It is news like this that makes me feel like all of my hard work is paying off now.

The bottom line for consumers as well as businesses is the same as it ever was – privacy is situational. We are all just more aware of it than we were a decade ago. What we are more concerned about now than before is the amount of control we have over our information and its security. We want to know our personally identifiable information is safe and that it cannot be used against us out of context.

The number one way to make sure your information is protected is to be selective in what you reveal. By now everyone ought to know that anything that is on the Internet, including email is not private. It can be dredged up at any future point. You probably also know what expectation of privacy you have in your workplace – most likely none. Check your employee handbook to confirm the policies. If there is no policy there, be sure to inquire.

No matter how much business self-regulation and government legislation we end up with in this flurry of proposed privacy compliance solutions, privacy is ultimately up to you. It is much better if your business takes responsibility for doing the right things as far as website policies and disclaimers and information security. As a person, it is up to you to take responsibility for what you reveal, to whom and on what media. Don’t just expect ‘them’ to take care of everything – be proactive. If you have an opinion on how these privacy discussions should turn out, join the conversation. Now more than ever, we have the opportunity to have our voices heard and become a part of an active democracy. The only way you lose is by not taking personal and professional responsibility for your privacy.

Like this newsletter? Darity offers another newsletter from her new Lotus Law Center published on the 3rd Thursday of each month. To subscribe, please email Lindsay@LotusLawCenter.com with Lotus in the subject line.

Darity Wesley is CEO and Legal Counsel for Privacy Solutions, Inc. a San Diego based consulting firm. Her team of Privacy Gurus® work with you to create policies and procedures to establish the expectation of privacy for your members, clients, customers, prospects, affiliates, associates, employees and vendors. You can reach her at 619-670-9462 or Darity@privacygurus.com, Visit our website at www.privacygurus.com ©2011 Privacy Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. www.PrivacyGurus.com